Nevada panel ponders best day for presidential primary

Brendan Riley

Tuesday, Dec. 22, 1998 | 4:43 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A Nevada panel is delaying its endorsement of a presidential primary that could be held on a Friday in early March 2000, on the same day as primaries in several other Western states.

Secretary of State Dean Heller, chairman of Nevada's Rocky Mountain Presidential Primary Task Force, said the delay is needed to make sure a Friday primary wouldn't exclude any potential voters.

Heller said that at a task force meeting Tuesday there was concern that some Muslims might not participate in such a primary because Fridays are holy days for them.

A similar concern about possible conflicts for people of the Jewish faith or Seventh Day Adventists prompted the eight Western states discussing a common primary to drop an earlier plan for a Saturday election.

Another sticking point for Saturdays was the potential for overtime costs, although task force members agreed that the expense would be more than offset by the political benefits.

After Tuesday's meeting, Heller's office checked with the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations and was told that a Friday primary shouldn't be a conflict for Muslims whose religious observances on that day usually last only an hour or two.

But Heller said the Nevada task force won't meet again until early January, and at that point panel members can go over the information and additional research and then vote on the idea of a Friday primary.

The plan generally is to make the Rocky Mountain region a key stop for White House hopefuls. The Western state primaries would be held between coastal primaries in California and New York in early March and mid-March Super in the South during presidential election years.

Other Western states working on the project with Nevada include Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

The strategy could focus attention on water, public land and other issues of importances to the West.

While the Nevada task force and similar entities in the other states are discussing the proposal, it would be up to individual state legislatures to actually approve the primary date.